Hope this ain't a reinyartnation, though I fear it may be....

My uncle sent my mother a list of what he calls "some traditional English names for a group of animals or birds" (though birds ARE animals, yes? perhaps he was thinking "mammals"....). Some seem rather odd to me (foxes and boars in particular, though I find most of them rather peculiar) and I wonder if anyone here is familiar with them? are they *really "traditional"? The only ones I thought I remembered hearing/seeing before were the larks and the crows.

A deceit of lapwings
A sort of mallards
A business of ferrets
An exultation of larks
A murder of crows
A murmuration of starlings
A leash of foxes
A bale of turtles
A cast of hawks
A chattering of choughs
A singular of boars
A congregation of plovers
A convocation of eagles
A dule of doves
A pace of asses
A richness of martens
A sedge of cranes
A stuck of jellyfish
A tidings of magpies

Please feel free to add to this list, too. The only extra ones I can think of are

A pride of lions
A crash (or is it clash?!) of rhinos
A parliament of owls
A pod of whales
A school of fish (but Lord knows what gatherings of different species of fish might be - this could be fun!)

Hope this ain't a reinyartnation[sic]

A) They ain' no such thang

2) Yes, it is but

Þ) Who cares?

Who cares?

Nobody, but a number of us care about that extra "n".

that extra "n".

Mebbe we could compromise. Call it reinyarnation cause we're spinning the same old thread again.

I've got a book around here, somewhere, called An Exultation of Larks by James Lipton. As I recall, he documents all the above usages, but most of them apparently were used for the nonce in one literary work or the other. Maybe someone can offer more detail.

...we're spinning the same old thread again.

There's a word for this. . .

Þ) Who cares?

I love these. think they're cool.

2) Yes, it is (a reinyartation) but

Þ) Who cares (that it's a reinyartation)?

<various colours>Þ) Who cares (that it's a reinyartation)?</various colours>

ah. my bad. sorry.

a plethora of sorries.

grouping name suggestion:

A belabouring of belinguaphiles.

A quibble of auditors.

A clutch of lawyers.

Here's a URL with some mildly interesting comments on the subject:
http://www.kith.org/logos/words/upper/V.html

Making up those names used to be a parlor game, and most of them don't stand close
scrutiny, as many animals just don't come in groups, except as pairs.Only a few have
been used as standard, such as pride of lions, pod of whales, etc.

pod of whales is especially funny because they have no feet!

because they have no feet!

yes, why DO we have "pod of whales," I suddenly wonder? I was thinking it's because each individual whale *could* be seen as being rather pod-shaped (like a pod of peas), but a group of them ain't....

And why a "school of fish"?

And does anyone else think any of the ones I originally listed are a bit strange? "A leash of foxes" - since when did foxes ever come on leashes? and many more struck me as peculiar - didn't they strike anyone else so?!

Yes, I was struck peculiar and I mentioned it earlier: according to Lipton, many of these are nonce-words.

For a general discusssion for collective nouns, there is a very good article at Julian Burnside's
site:http://www.users.bigpond.com/burnside/collective.htm
The site is quite large, and if you don't already know it, it is good for quite a few hours of
very pleasant browsing.

And does anyone else think any of the ones I originally listed are a bit strange? "A leash of foxes" - since when did foxes ever come on leashes? and many more struck me as peculiar - didn't they strike anyone else so?!

doncha know poetree when ya see it? sheesh, all that purty langage gwine to waste...

a body of pathologists
a strut of surgeons
a film of radiologists...

NO!

A corps of pathologists.

I like corps of pathologists! For "body" I must give credit to the television show Inspector Morse.

a mass of oncologists

a score of composers...
a chorus of tenors...

(I know, I know, these cross the line a bit...)

But TEd, a "body" of pathologists works as an aural pun, "corps" only works when read, not so well when heard.At least, IMO

Yours hubristically,

sjm

Of corpse you're correct.

>Of corpse you're correct.

You mean I'm dead right? Excellent!

Stiffed again, morgues the pity. How I cadaver have missed that one! I'll just have to undertake to be better.

TEd (crying in bier -e)

those are pretty cryptic, TEd.

a stack of librarians

a bake of clams
a scream of lobsters*
a flex of mussels....or not!

and for the Aussies in the crowd:

a plash of platypus
a bounce of kangaroos
a clamp of crocodiles (is it true one et a German tourist recently? a friend of mine in Darwin sez so....geez, you'd think that would make the news Up Over as well)


(*don't they scream when boiled? I've never witnessed it, I'm a coward about killing my own food)

>(*don't they scream when boiled? I've never witnessed it, I'm a coward about killing my own food)


I have heard crayfish (our lobsters) screaming when on a barbecue - a truly hideous sound, but insufficiently so to stop me eating them.

In reply to:

---

a clamp of crocodiles (is it true one et a German tourist recently? a friend of mine in Darwin sez so....geez, you'd think that would make the news Up Over as well)

---

I heard about this tourist as well -- and that she'd just fled from Bali after the bombing there. Mark you, apparently she went swimming in a river after being told by the tour guide don't because there are crocs in the river.

Bingley

Just ro resurrect an old post -

A proposition from an assembly of "ladies of the evening" is, variously,

a flurry of strumpets
a jam of tarts
an essay of trollops
an anthology of pros
a feathering of 'ores

Dear wofahulicodoc: and only those who have sculled are likely to know what "feathering" meant.

those who have sculled are likely to know what "feathering" meant

Well, yes, but isn't the Board supposed to expose us to words we aren't familiar with every now and then? :-)

From Onelook.com:

"Quick definitions (feathering)
noun: turning an oar parallel to the water between pulls"

(Actually, I would consider it a verb participle myself)

Feathering, to the aviators in the crowd, refers to shutting down the engine and rotating the prop to a position of least wind resistance.

Same thing with the oars: you rotate them so the blades are parallel to the water as you reach for the next stroke, and they minimize your wasted energy by not needing to be lifted, help keep your balance, and minimize the drag as they just barely skim over the surface.

In sculling you can catch a crab if you aren't careful, but amongst a feathering of 'ores you might catch many crabs.

<applause>

<applause> Yes, you could catch the applause, too... (eta, that was a good one!)

Hope this ain't a reinyartnation

A) They ain' no such thang

Yes there is:

A Reinyartnation® of AWADers......see?

And Faldage, you owe me for a ®...but I ain't chargin' mg 'cause she's special.

A Phalanx of Faldages...(now there's a scary thought!) so you wanna be an "n" thief, do ya?

>Yes there is:

A Reinyartnation® of AWADers......see?


Nope, sorry. Given the fact, we are indeed Anything You Like Except Unanimous Raconteurs, the correct term for a group of us is that given to us by Dr. Charles Lutwedge Dodgson, in a stunningly prescient piece of writing.

A glory of ayleurs.
for everybody except Mrs F.
For Mrs. F.

Nope, sorry

A Menagerie of Maxes...

>Menagerie of Maxes

Curiously enough, what was the name of the boy who found himself king "Where the Wild Things Are"?

Aksherly, my real pride in my earlier post came in coming up with a word for the previously "spurious" final letter in "ayleur". I am especially proud of having come up with a word for this letter, since, as Mrs. F. will testify, I never use it. This is in keeping with the long and proud history of non-rhoticism. Few people realise that only the non-rhotic were on board the Ark during the Great Flood.

Faldage, you owe me for a ®

Nuh-uh! I was quoting mg. She's the one owes you. I wouldn't use that miserable excuse for a coinage as a typo.

All these witty expressions for prostitutes but none for a group of johns. Anyone? A mens room of johns comes to mind but it's a bit unwieldy.

Few people realise that only the non-rhotic were on board the Ark during the Great Flood. A-hem---beggin' your pardon, sir, but what was Noah's wife's name? She could have been an r person. And how about giraffes? And what was it they were on, hmm? I have to say congratulations on Raconteur, though--it is a sublime fit. But I still ain't one o' them nonreal-word things, and I shall "glory" anyone who tries to say I am!
Hey, I just thought of what would have been a good story to be written up in that Onion thingy, if it were still in existence: "Entire citizenry of U.S. brings class-action suit against the government of New Zealand, for condoning non-rhoticism: unfair handicap for populace".

When within earshot of the (inevitably arrogant) mining engineers on a mine site we geologists used to refer to ourselves as a pride. Unfortunately they considered us a gaggle.

I remember when I was an AWAD newbie that I mentioned a "kine" of cattle; a word I'd struck in my teens. This refers to several herds of cattle; ie it is a collective collective noun. Are there any others that anybody is aware of? Armies (or impies) would fill the bill, but they're no fun.

stales

stalesey, you are my kine of guy!
What are impies, please?

...a group of johns.

A lavvy?
A sink? Or a sinq?
A s#17load?

Impi - a Zulu army

Impi(e?)s - plural

VERY handy for getting rid of those pesky I's in a game of scrabble - especially if you get the M on a triple letter!

stales

In reply to:

---

All these witty expressions for prostitutes but none for a group of johns. Anyone?

---

A revelation of johns.

Bingley

All these witty expressions for prostitutes but none for a group of johns


A flush of johns? he said self-deridingly...

In reply to:

---

A revelation of johns.

---

<standing ovation>Wait, should that be "a revelation of john's"? ;|

I ain't chargin' mg 'cause she's special.

awww....shucks!

WO'N, I luuuuurrrve yew!

Now if I could only figger out how to make that symbol....hmmm....something about ctrl+R, but I just tried that and all I got was an "r"....and Mac+R deleted my msg....maybe option+R ®

HA HA!

[victory dance-e]

ain't chargin' mg 'cause she's special.

Yeah.

OK. How's this?

Yeah.

OK. How's this?

It's gettin' there, Faldo...but I think it still needs a "little" work.

it still needs a "little" work

I was quoting, Juan. I'm not going to correct it in a quote. That would be journalistically irresponsible. If it were a typo I'd maybe correct it, but it wasn't a typo, was it?

I was quoting, Juan.

Faldage, I don't even know what the heck we're talking about!

A Claustration of Nuns

what the heck we're talking about!

Well, then, to mention it anymore would probably qualify as a reinyartation, and we wouldn't want that, would we?

A homologue of clones.

reinyart(n)ation

Faldo, you're hopelessly n-less!

n-less

Not to mention correct.

>correct

You can't be "correct" with my coinage...you just don't want the N in there because it reminds you of all your Nit-picking, as evidenced by the case in point.

It's got plenty ns already. It don't need no more.

your coinage?! you darn well know that it is (at best(?)) an unauthorized and corrupted deracination of my coinage.
<hmph>

...up-rooted from the under-soil, no doubt.

your coinage?! you darn well know that it is (at best(?)) an unauthorized and corrupted deracination of my coinage.
<hmph>


deracination schmerashinashun!

...up-rooted from the under-soil, no doubt.

Et tu, ASpé? ...you...you hyphenmonger!